Elizabeth (Tilney) Howard (bef. 1445 - 1497)

Born before 1445 in Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 4 Apr 1497 after age 52 in Abbot Readings Place, Baynards Castle, London, England

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Biography

Birth and Parents

Elizabeth was the daughter and heiress of Frederick Tilney, Esq., of Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk, Boston, Lincolnshire, etc., and Elizabeth, daughter of Laurence Cheney, Esq.^[1] Wikipedia states that she was born at Ashwellthorpe Hall, Norfolk.^[2]

Marriages

1. Elizabeth’s first husband (settlement date 11 April 1451) was Sir Humphrey Bourgchier, son of John Bourgchier, 1st Lord Berners, by Margery Berners^[1][3] Her first husband died, fighting with the Yorkists, in the Battle of Barnet in 1471.^[3]
2. On 30 April 1472 she married Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, son of John Howard, K.G., 1st Duke of Norfolk, by Katherine Moleyns^[1][4] The marriage was arranged by Edward IV.^[2]

Children

by Humphrey Bourgchier

• John Bourgchier, K.B., 2nd Lord Berners, married Katherine Howard^[1][3]
• Anne Bourgchier, married Sir Thomas Fiennes, 8th Lord Dacre^[1][3]
• Margaret Bourgchier, married (1) John Sandys, (2) Sir Thomas Bryan, (3) David Zouche^[1][3]

by Thomas Howard

• Thomas Howard, K.G., 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Surrey^[1][4]
• Edward Howard, Knt.^[1][4]
• Edmund Howard, Knt., , father of Katherine Howard, wife of Henry VIII.^[1][4]
• Elizabeth Howard, married Thomas Boleyn, K.G., K.B., mother of Anne Boleyn wife of Henry VIII.^[1][4]
• Muriel Howard, married (1) John Grey, Viscount Lisle; (2) Thomas Knyvet, K.B.^[1][4]

Life

In May 1465 she carried the train of Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV, at Elizabeth Woodville's coronation. She served as Elizabeth Woodville's lady in waiting and accompanied Elizabeth Woodville when she sought sanctuary in Westminster Abbey after her husband's temporary fall from power. She was present at the birth of Edward V in Westminster Abbey in 1470.^[2]

Elizabeth was co-heiress to the manors of Fisherwick and Shelfield in Walsall, Staffordshire through her descent from Roger Hillary, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (d.1356).^[2]

In 1475 she inherited the manor Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk from her father.^[2]

In 1483 she was one of the attendants on Anne Neville, wife of Richard III, at their joint coronation.^[2]

Her second's husband's father died in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 and Thomas Howard was wounded in the battle. Both were fighting for Richard III, and Thomas was imprisoned, but his attainder did not extend to the confiscation of her own estates.^[2] His estates and title were soon restored and in November 1487 she and her husband attended the coronation of Henry VII's wife, Elizabeth of York. She was made a lady of the queen's bedchamber, and in 1489 became joint godmother of Margaret Tudor, daughter of Elizabeth of York and Henry VII.^[2]

Death

Elizabeth (Tilney) Howard died on 4 April 1497^[1][3][4][5] at Abbot Readings Place, Baynards Castle, London, England. She was buried in the nuns' choir of the convent of the Minoresses outside Aldgate.^[2]

Her heir was her son John, lord Berners.^[5]

In Poetry, Art and Fiction

In 1495 the poet John Skelton was a guest of Elizabeth and her husband at Sheriff Hutton Castle, Yorkshire. Elizabeth and her ladies placed an ornamental garland on his head, and he wrote a poem, The Garlande of Laurell, in which he complimented her, her daughters, and her ladies.^[2]

Elizabeth is shown in a stained glass window at Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford, Suffolk, facing Elizabeth Talbot, a Duchess of Norfolk.

She features as Bess Bourchier in The Sun in Splendour, the final volume of a series of novels on the Plantagenets by Juliet Dymoke.^[6]

Research Note

There has been some confusion about the date of her death, owing to the publication of her Will in Testamenta Vetusta, ^[7] under the heading "Elizabeth, Countess of Norfolk". Three Wills are printed, the first two clearly hers, but the third "as made after her husband became Duke of Norfolk" was dated 6 November 1506. However, as Thomas Howard did not became Duke of Norfolk until 1514, this can not be the Will of Elizabeth, Countess of Surrey. Cokayne ^[8] has identified the author of this Will as Elizabeth Mowbray, widow of the last Mowbray Duke of Norfolk.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11} Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham, (Salt Lake City, Utah: the author, 2013), Vol I, pp485-486 BOURCHIER #13; Vol III, pp 336-337 HOWARD #14
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9} Wikipedia: Elizabeth Tilney, Countess of Surrey
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5} Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2011, volume I pp.284-287 BOURCHIER 11
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6} Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2011, voume 2 pp.414-415 HOWARD 11
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Maskelyne and H. C. Maxwell Lyte, 'Inquisitions Post Mortem, Henry VII, Entries 1-50', in Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem: Series 2, Volume 2, Henry VII (London, 1915), pp. 1-45. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/inquis-post-mortem/series2-vol2/pp1-45 [accessed 14 October 2020].
6. ↑ Dymoke, Juliet. The Sun in Splendour, pub. Dobson, 1980
7. ↑ Nicholas, Nicholas Harris. Testamenta Vetusta, vol. 2, pp. 482-3. London: Nicholas and Son, 1826. p. 482.
8. ↑ Cokayne, G E. The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant,, 2nd edition, Vol. 9, p. 609, note j. St Catherine Press, 1936. FamilySearch

• Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. 2nd edition. Salt Lake City: the author, 2011, volume I pp.284-287 BOURCHIER and volume 2 pp.414-415 HOWARD. See also WikiTree's source page for Magna Carta Ancestry.
• Cokayne, G E C, revised and enlarged by Doubleday, H A and Lord Howard de Walden. Complete Peerage, vol. 9, St Catherine Press 1936, pp.614-615
• Wikipedia: Elizabeth Tilney, Countess of Surrey
• Richardson, Douglas. Plantagenet Ancestry, 2nd edn. (2010), 3 vols, Volume 2, page 274, HOWARD 12.
• Weis, Frederick Lewis, additions by Walter Lee Shippard Jr. Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 8th Edition, Genealogical Publishing Co. 2004, p.8 (line 4:34), p.32 (line 22:35) and p.132 (line 136:34)
• Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charles Mosley Editor-in-Chief, 1999
• "Our Kingdom Come," Eileen McKinnon-Suggs (suggs1[at]msn.com) Ancestry link
• Faris, David. Plantagenet Ancestry of 17th Century Colonists, Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD, 1996, p. 47 "Butller"
• Visitation of Norfolk Page 163: Howard